Negotiating Beijing’s identity at the turn of the twentieth century

Old Beijing was a cultural space characterized and confined by walls (Wang, 2003; Lu, 2005). In the last few years increasing attention has been focused on the sociospatial transformation of Beijing, and a common denominator identified by many scholars is the vanishing of the city walls. This pivotal element is immediately associated with material loss. However, some scholars have taken this analysis a step further, addressing the city without walls as a “microcosm of what has happened to Chinese culture.” (Wang, 1990; quoted by Zha, 1996: 67).